Encourage imaginative play with your kids by making these cute DIY Wooden Peg Doll Waldorf Gnomes! Play with your friends, hand them out as gifts or simply put them on your shelf!

If you’ve read even one Dr. Seuss book, you know that he places a big focus on fantasy. He even said, “Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living.” So that should clear all doubts about how important a role fantasy plays in a child’s life!

And fantasy and imaginative play are key ideas in the philosophy of Waldorf education, which aims at promoting a more holistic kind of education that mixes the intellectual and the spiritual. Waldorf philosophy believes that young kids are more in touch with their spirituality, which is why they have such vivid imaginations, involving fairies, elves and gnomes.

Since we’re all for imaginative play and since Doll Day is just around the corner, we’ve decided to make ourselves some cute little Wooden Peg Doll Waldorf Gnomes to play with! Most Waldorf dolls are made with natural materials, which is why we’ve used wooden pegs. This is a craft that doesn’t really need more than 10 minutes to put together, as you’ll soon see!

DIY Wooden Peg Doll Waldorf Gnomes

Materials Required:

• Wooden Peg
• Washi Tape in different patterns
• Markers
• Pink Color Pencil
• Scissors
• Glue

Instructions to make your own Wooden Peg Doll Waldorf Gnomes:

1. Our little peg doll isn’t…umm… wearing anything yet, so let’s dress her up! Start with making her a top by coloring in the upper part of her body with a colored marker.

2. Don’t put away the markers yet! Draw a cute little face, complete with pink cheeks and red lips! Use a pink pencil for the cheeks, to keep it subtle.

3. Take a piece of wide Washi tape and fold it into a hat for your doll. Be careful here so you don’t end up with a sticky mess! Place the hat on your doll’s pretty head.

4. Still missing something? Oh yes, she needs something for the bottom! Make a little skirt out of patterned Washi tape and stick it neatly beneath the top.

And voila – your doll is ready! Now, that didn’t take long, did it? With some more patterned tape in different colors, you can make a full set of Wooden Peg Doll Waldorf Gnomes. In fact, why not make a bunch of families with wooden pegs of different sizes to go perfectly with your Paper Cup Miniature village! 

We can think of a number of ways you can use these little Wooden Peg Doll Waldorf Gnomes, besides playing with them, of course. You could arrange them on your shelf and have different sets for each season. You can have a big one and a little one that would make a lovely gift for Mother’s Day. A couple would be perfect for Valentine’s Day, and we also think they’d look adorable with this recycled Mushroom Craft! I’m sure you can come up with many more brilliant ideas!